(XINHUA)

Parents watch as their children enter an exam hall in north China's Tianjin Municipality to take the 2012 college entrance examination on June 7, the first day of the two-day annual national exam.

Known as gaokao in Chinese, the exam is a prerequisite for high school graduates to enter almost all higher education institutions in the country.

The examination is usually held on June 7-8. This year, about 9.15 million students took the exam.